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Friday, July 13, 2012

The Texas GOP Position paper

As mentioned in the podcast (wait did we mention it...oh yes..yes we did), the Republican Party if Texas released their 2012 platform paper to rave reviews. I would embed it here, but even though it is a public document, I don't necessarily have the rights to upload it to Scribd, but here is a link: http://s3.amazonaws.com/texasgop_pre/assets/original/2012Platform_Final.pdf
(if you can't find it and really want it, just give us a line and we'll email it to you)

Many pundits, bloggers, and what-have-you's have made good note and fun of this gem from the statement that somehow "mistakenly" got through the editorial process. From page 12 of the document "Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."

The Communications Director for the RPoT, Chris Elam, told Talking Points Memo at the end of June that the use of "critical thinking skill" was a mistake bu that they would have to wait until 2014 to fix it. Really? It's a helluva important document, they might think about fixing it now. Or are there some in the party that would be against, I don't know, accurate language? Or perhaps they feel that making a correction shows some kind of flaw? Sort of like the whole "flip flop" language of campaigns past: don't make a mistake or we will slam you for it, and then don't change your mind because that means you don't have a real position.

I looked, but I could not find that they backed off from any of the other statements in the report, so I feel safe in saying that the Texas GOP is pretty much a radical, anti-* organization, now, who stand against a lot but not for anything. But that isn't going to stop people from voting for them, because often candidates say radical things simply to make themselves stand out and many voters don't think they really believe their own rhetoric. Which is why the only non ultra-Conservative Presidential candidate, Jon Hunstman, quickly dropped out. Possibly because the radical candidates were more fun to watch.

Regardless, it appears that Texas Republicans must adhere to a policy statement that may sound good from a financial point of view but from a social and societal standpoint are misguided, selfish, bigoted, and short-sighted at their core.